The Irving, Texas property has struggled with flooding for the past 30 years, and on May 4, the city signed a contract to install a new irrigation system. The golf course is currently closed and is expected to reopen in fall 2018 after all of the improvements, including a course redesign and the addition of a transfer water pump, are completed.
For nearly 30 years, city officials in Irving, Texas have struggled to deal with major problems at the Twin Wells Golf Course. Built in 1988 on a landfill in a flood plain, the 29-year-old course is often underwater, leading to mosquitoes, cracked pathways and sinkholes, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Now city officials are stepping up with a $5 million plan in three phases to rescue the beleaguered course. On May 4, the Irving City Council took the first step of that plan when it voted 7-1 to approve a $1.56 million contract with Mid-America Golf & Landscape Inc. to install a new irrigation system at Twin Wells, the Morning News reported.
The new irrigation system will include a central computer to allow easier maintenance monitoring. The new equipment will also allow staff to respond quicker to system malfunctions, the Morning News reported.
Since Twin Wells was built, there have been many improvements to golf course irrigation systems, said Joe Moses, Assistant Director of Irving Parks and Recreation. The upgrades at Twin Wells will take advantage of those changes, the Morning News reported.
“It will have better piping, which is really good when you have soil with a lot of movement,” Moses said.
The golf course is currently closed. It is expected to reopen in the fall of 2018 after all of the improvements, including a course redesign and the addition of a transfer water pump, are completed. The council first started looking for contractors for the project in 2014, although some council members then were reluctant to invest money in the golf course, the Morning News reported.
Council member Brad LaMorgese, who was on the council in 2014, said Thursday he still didn’t see the point in spending millions of dollars on something that residents from his far north Irving district cannot easily access from where they live. The council approved the contract without comment, the Morning News reported.
Twin Wells has also suffered from attendance problems. A 2014 study by Twin Wells’ former management company found that about 4,000 people had played 23,000 rounds of golf there within that year, fewer rounds than any other municipal course in North Texas, the Morning News reported.
City officials are hoping the improvements will increase those numbers, especially with local residents. The renovation plan stems from the results of a 2016 survey of Irving residents and golf course users and round-table discussions with experts. A majority of the 314 survey respondents said they preferred to keep the golf course open. The respondents said the course does not need to be as nice as a country club and they were fine with improvements being done over time. Their main concern was having a playable course, the Morning News reported.
Most of the respondents also said they had played at the course between one to five times since 2014, and rated it below average, the Morning News reported.
The renovation project may not prevent the course from flooding, Moses said, but officials are seeking solutions that would get rid of the water faster, or at least keep the course playable in some areas. A possible new name for the golf course and fee increase may be in the works for Twin Wells, but Moses said no final determinations have been made since the project is still in its early stages. Officials want to keep the course’s price affordable, the Morning News reported.
“We see this as an amenity for our residents and we want to make sure it’s something that they can afford,” he said.
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